Davis allies plan to sue over recall petitions / Governor's foes say they have signatures of 1.6 million voters

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2003-07-15 04:00:00 PDT Sacramento -- The campaign to oust Gov. Gray Davis moved into its second critical stage Monday: Recall supporters announced they have collected nearly double the signatures needed, and Davis' allies vowed to file a lawsuit today challenging how they were gathered.

The lawsuit signals that Davis and his defenders are using every means available to question the legitimacy of the recall, which they have dubbed a right-wing coup to topple the government. Recall supporters called the lawsuit a frivolous and cynical attempt to overturn the will of 1.6 million petition signers.

Lawyers opposed to the recall said petition circulators acted as mercenaries who were bused into California from Washington and Arizona, housed in motels and paid $1 a signature with no intention of becoming California residents. The law requires signature gatherers in a recall campaign to be registered voters, which requires state residency.

Despite 31 attempts since 1911, no other gubernatorial recall campaign has gotten this far. With record-low public opinion of Davis, Republicans say the recall process is a "lemon law" for governors, claiming Davis lied to the public about the scope of the current budget crisis.

Today, the fight moves to the courts. Davis supporters said several Southern California residents will file a class-action lawsuit charging that potentially "dozens and dozens" of paid petition circulators fraudulently claimed to be California residents, failed to personally review signatures they had collected or should not have been hired because they were convicted felons.

"We have every reason to believe that this assault on the integrity of the process is only the tip of the iceberg," said Wylie Aitken, an Orange County attorney working on the lawsuit.

LEGAL EXPERTS WEIGH IN

Legal experts, however, said the courts have been unwilling in the past to punish voters for the sins of paid circulators. Even if some worked illegally, the law is "very protective of direct-democracy tools" such as recall petitions, said Rick Hasen, an election law expert and professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

"If the purpose is to delay, it could well serve the purpose. If the purpose is to sully the reputation of the signature gatherers, it may succeed at that as well," Hasen said. "But on the legal question of whether or not problems with the circulators are somehow going to derail the recall effort, I am skeptical."

Dave Gilliard, director of the Rescue California recall committee, said about 150,000 signature gatherers were used in the effort -- mostly people who downloaded the petition off the Internet.

About 1,500 paid circulators set up tables at strip malls and elsewhere collecting signatures on petitions. The lawsuit targets these people. Gilliard said all of them were required to register to vote in California or they didn't get paid.

"To us, Gray Davis can't explain or defend his record so he is resorting to a frivolous and cynical lawsuit to thwart the will of 1.6 million Californians, " Gilliard said. "It's not going to work and I don't even think it will slow us down much."

SHELLEY TO BE NAMED IN SUIT

The suit will be filed in Los Angeles Superior Court against Secretary of State Kevin Shelley on behalf of voters in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties. Shelley, the suit will demand, should issue new instructions to elections officials on checking the legitimacy of circulators and the signatures they gathered. They want any illegitimate signatures thrown out.

Shelley issued a statement Monday saying, "I will continue to provide guidance based on the law, not the interests of one side or the other."

He already has been sued by one recall committee demanding that signatures be more quickly verified. That suit is pending in Sacramento.

Aitken and fellow attorney Paul Kiesel said they have documentation of at least two petition gatherers with multiple felonies, which would make them ineligible to vote in California, as well as circulators who lined up petitions on tables and then left them unattended to be signed. The law requires the circulators to verify each signature.

California law requires 897,158 signatures from registered voters to place the recall on the ballot. If 1.6 million signatures have been gathered, as supporters claim, then hundreds of thousands of signatures would have to be obtained by fraudulent means for them to be thrown out.

Davis supporters said they want a full check.

"If enough voters in the state of California legitimately signed the petition, then the recall should go on the ballot," said Steve Smith with Taxpayers Against the Governor's Recall. "We are simply ensuring that in fact enough registered voters legitimately signed the petition."

'99 HIGH COURT RULING

In 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out a Colorado law that required initiative circulators to be registered voters. California followed up and changed its law on regular initiatives, but did not change the law regarding recall petition circulators. They still must be registered voters.

Anti-recall attorneys said this means the California Legislature specifically didn't want out-of-state residents coming to California to overturn an election.

But Hasen said he would be quite surprised if the courts viewed recalls differently from initiatives, and suspects they would throw out the voter- registration requirement on the same grounds.

All signature verification and legal disputes must be resolved before Sept. 4, to force a special election in the fall or winter.

If Shelley cannot certify the recall before that date, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante can delay the recall election until the March 2 primary.

Many Democrats believe delaying the recall until the March 2 primary would give the governor an advantage. Democrats are expected to show up in force to vote in March, their party's first truly competitive presidential primary since 1992.

Meanwhile, throughout the state, county registrars are watching the signatures pour in. Victor Salazar, Fresno County's county clerk, has canceled all vacations for his workers and called others back in to work in an effort to verify all the signatures by the July 23 reporting date.

"We want to get these done, verified and sent to the secretary of state as quickly as possible because it looks like we're going to have a special election to prepare for," he said.

SIGNATURE BREAKDOWN

Most of the signatures have come from Southern California, with Orange County reporting 223,000, more than 300,000 in Los Angeles County, 188,000 in San Diego, and 73,000 in Riverside.

In the northern part of the state, Sacramento is reporting 70,000 signatures, Sonoma has 14,000 and Santa Clara has received about 35,000. At the bottom of the list is San Francisco, where only about 5,100 recall signatures have been turned in.

"This is all unanticipated work," said Ernest Hawkins, elections director for Sacramento County. "We estimate that it costs us between $1 and $1.50 to verify each signature. A special election will cost the county about $1.6 million and that's not in our budget."

Recall election -- Monday's developments: Two recall committees announce they have submitted nearly 1.7 million signatures to county elections officials. 897,158 are needed from registered voters to qualify for the ballot.

-- What's next: Elections officials count collected signatures and verify they are from registered California voters. Updated numbers released by secretary of state July 23.

-- Key dates: Recall must be certified by Secretary of State Kevin Shelley before Sept. 4 to force a special election. After that, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante can place the recall on the March 2 presidential primary ballot.

-- The recall ballot: Asks two questions: 1) Should Davis be removed from office? 2) If he is voted out, who should replace him? Each voter is allowed to answer both questions, even if he or she votes "no" on the recall.

-- Cost: Estimated $25 million to $40 million to run special election.

-- Who can run? Any U.S. citizen and California resident over 18 who posts 10,000 signatures (or a $3,500 fee and 65 signatures) from supporters can get on the recall ballot.